Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	church_n	council_n	trent_n	4,974	5	10.7107	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48029	A Letter from a Presbyterian minister to a member of Parliament		1693 (1693)	Wing L1429; ESTC R41463	8,102	13

the matter a Disowning or at least a not Owning of this Assembly to be the Lawful General Assembly of the Church of Scotland And their asserting they cannot be oblidged to Answer does not bear that Candor and Respect which they ought to carry to this Assembly in such a matter and seems to be inconsistent with that Desire they mention in their Address to exercise their Ministry in Concurrence with the Presbyterian Ministers Their second Answer was also declared by the Committee no way satisfactory it being not only a Refusal to explain what appears unclear to the Committee in any part of the Formula and Declaration but also a Refusal of what is most necessar for the security of the Protestant Religion Now let the impartial World consider what any conscientious Judicatory upon Earth could have done in such Circumstances when with a peremptoriness very Grievous to some of us they refused to give the lest Satisfaction to any Question concerning their meaning in their Formula nor would the Commissioners from the North viz. Mr. Forbes and another whose Name I have forgot both of them grave and pertinent men Treat with the Assembly for themselves Personally in disjunction from their Constituents Though the Assembly declared they would admit of no Proxies in this matter nor of any who did not Personally Compear at this or some other Lawful Judicatory the Nature of the Address and what is thereby craved being so personal and peculiar to the Addressers themselves Now could any Men of Conscience admit of all promiscuously without the least knowledge of them or Testimony concerning them yea the Addressors themselves could not read some of their Names being Ciphered who were their Constituents nor give an Account of the Places where they served and were Ministers for the time But that the Assembly did most sincerely design the Reception of all Worthy Men is undenyably evident by what they and inferior Judicatories have already done I know one Presbytery where these who are already assumed are the Plurality so little Jealous or Nice are we in receiving Good Men. And that many more were not assumed before this time proceeded not from us but from the stop that was given to the Committee of the Assemblies Proceeding in the North. But that you may have a full view of the Formula or Test to be Signed by all those who were to be assumed I shall here insert it Verbatim I A. B. do sincerely Declare and Promise that I will submit to the Presbyterian Government of the Church as it is now by Law established in this Kingdom under Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary by Presbyteries Provincial Synods and a General Assembly And that I will as becomes a Minister of the Gospel Heartily concur with the said Government for the Suppressing of Sin and Wickedness the promotion of Piety and the purging of the Church of all Erroneous and Scandalous Ministers And I do further Promise that I will Subscribe the Confession of Faith now confirmed by Act of Parliament as containing the Doctrine of the Protestant Religion professed in this Kingdom Now though this may well pass with Honest Men yet the thinking men of the Assembly guided I hope by the promised unerring Spirit of Grace seriously perpending and reflecting upon the Genius of some of those with whom they had to do for I dare not say but others of them were Sincere in their meaning who are belived to be Pragmatick Self-designing Men supported by Some at a Distance who can be pleased with nothing that falls not even with their Sentiments and Ways and who by all means endeavour to keep them at sinful Distances from Persons better perhaps than themselves because their Schibboleth is not pronounced by them and by Others at home who without breach of Charity are the Troublers of our Israel and down right Enemies to the Government both Civil and Ecclesiastick I say the Reverend Assembly considering this feared that latet anguis in herba and it being their proper Work to Judge of Confessions and Conditions of Communion they found the Terms of the Formula General and Uncertain And truely it cannot be denied but Ill Men may have a Back-door to go out at in the last and principal Clause of the Formula For if the as Reduplicat the Establishment by Act of Parliament and not their own Confession of Faith there is not the least Security given thereby to our Religion For I may safely not only Subscribe but if I were called to it Swear the Canons of the Council of Trent as the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and the Alcoran as the Doctrine of Mahomet tho there were not a Word of Truth in one of them but not as the Articles of my Faith but This I durst neither Subscribe Say nor Swear without telling withal that they are not the Articles of my Faith with the same Breath I do the other whatever liberty some of their way may take who are professed Arminians and yet willing to subscribe this Formula without any such Declaration But that which most of all troubles me who have been their Advocate not in a Corner my meaning is I have with a particular zeal urged the Reception of those into Church Communion and a share of the Government the course of whose Life and Ministry demonstrate them to be Men of God for this is my Test by which I would have them tryed and then though they were Jure Divino Men in the point of Episcopacy of whom I hear there are but very few and declared at their joyning with us as the Famous and Renouned Bishop Vsher for Learning and Piety did to some of our Banished Presbyterian Brethren in Ireland when they challenged him for allowing at least complying with some of the old Corruptions and Trash of Rome hoc facio propter Evangelium they should be a thousand times welcomer to me than those who are most liberal in their Professions of Repentance and Signing of Tests and yet have skill and cunning enough to wait for every opportunity and to improve it for the Subversion of the Government I say that which most of all troubles me is the Petition just now given into this present Parliament which makes them lyable to the most perplexing exceptions that can be made against them For beside that it was an unkindly thing unbecoming a true Son of the Church to exhibite a Complaint and Lybel Her as Arbitrary in Her Refusal of their Address and all this to the High Court of Parliament In the Pettitory part they seem to have forgot themselves for though their late Episcopal Government was built upon no other Foundation and advanced by no other Methods then Civil Laws Rigorously executed without any consequent far less antecedent determination of any Church Judicatory The Honourable Parliament they now apply unto will certainly abhor that down right gross Erastianism the like whereof is not to be found in the World as